The DEEWR will hold a public briefing on the Federal Government's Fair Work Bill 2008 on December 11, ahead of a two-week Senate inquiry conducting hearings around the country in the last week of January and mid-February.
The Fair Work Bill's better off overall test lifts the bar on the current no disadvantage test and is likely to result in better outcomes for employees, a leading IR practitioner says.
The Commonwealth DPP has advised the ABCC that it withdrew its charge against the CFMEU's Noel Washington because the construction watchdog's original interview that the union official allegedly refused to attend was adjourned.
The Fair Work Bill's severing of the link between IR tribunal members' pay and that of Federal Court judges, and the removal of judges' pension entitlements for presidential members, will make it harder to attract talented lawyers to the new institution, according to former senior AIRC member, Paul Munro, while Monash University's Anthony Forsyth says FWA replaces Work Choices' failed private ADR model of dispute resolution with a UK-inspired focus on mediation and prevention.
A senior workplace lawyer says employers could face a new type of discrimination claim from employees under the Fair Work legislation, which provides a low-cost avenue for such cases on an expanded range of grounds and with uncapped compensation for all employees, regardless of whether they are covered by federal or state IR systems.
The ALP's changes to the Work Choices laws on industrial action amount to "fine tuning rather than radical change," according to Slater & Gordon's Phil Pasfield.
While a lot of the focus on the Federal Government's Fair Work Bill yesterday was on its right of entry and bargaining provisions, they are of "minimal relevance" to the overwhelming majority of employees and it is the NES, the awards system and unfair dismissal rights that are of far greater significance to a far greater number, according to Adelaide University's Professor Andrew Stewart.
The arrival of the Fair Work Bill has failed to dispel uncertainty in the legal profession about whether they will play a reduced role in the new IR system.
A central role for informal conferences and tightly confined appeal rights are central features of the unfair dismissal provisions in the Fair Work Bill, with the place of lawyers in the new system left in the hands of Fair Work Australia.
Six days before the start of his trial for refusing to attend an ABCC interview, the Commonwealth DPP has dropped its charge against the CFMEU's (construction division) Victorian senior vice president Noel Washington.
